The best chance to see the meteors this year will be to find a dark sky without light pollution and to look east toward the constellation of LeoĪ century after the Night the Stars Fell, the song Stars Fell on Alabama was written by Frank Perkins, with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. They made sure we all knew what happened … you see, they thought it was Judgement Day.” The old folks was so glad to hear where their people went. “But then the white folks started callin’ all the slaves together, and for no reason, they started tellin’ some of the slaves who their mothers and fathers was, and who they’d been sold to and where. They looked up and then they got scared, too. We all made so much noise, the white folks came out to see what was happenin’. Some o’ the folks was screamin’, and some was prayin’. “Big stars coming down real close to the groun’ and just before they hit the ground they would burn up! We was all scared. We went outside and there they was a-fallin’ everywhere! Walton-Raji reported Young’s words thus: “Somebody in the quarters started yellin’ in the middle of the night to come out and to look up at the sky. Walton-Raji had travelled to Chicago to meet her own elderly cousin, Frances Swader, and to hear from her Young’s story. The story of Amanda Young, who died in 1920, was recounted in 2010 by her great-great granddaughter Angela Y Walton-Raji as part of a family oral history.
In Maury County, Tennessee, a small girl, born into slavery, was awoken in her cot by the sound of screaming. Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images ‘They thought it was judgment day’ Harriet Tubmann, another great abolitionist, said in later life that it had showed her to always follow the Northern Star to freedom.Īn engraving depicting the Leonids meteor shower, which was associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle, as seen over Niagara Falls in 1833.
Along the banks of the Missouri river, Mormon refugees, driven from their homes by settlers, watched as the stars fell, while Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, recorded the event in his diary as a sign that the second coming of Christ was at hand.Ībraham Lincoln witnessed the meteor storm, as did Frederick Douglass. Several Native American nations noted the celestial drama, with the Lakota people resetting their calendar to commemorate the occurrence. “There was little wind and not a trace of clouds, and the meteors succeeded each other in quick succession.”
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